Ethics on the shelf

EXAMINER EDITORIAL WRITER

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, August 11, 1998

1998-08-11 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- JUST ASKING, but what do you think the odds are that among 127 ethics complaints made concerning shenanigans in and around San Francisco City Hall during the last five years, only one had any merit?

And that one violation, as it turned out, was a minor one. A non-profit Turkish American organization was required to pay a $410 fine for failing to register promptly its activity in opposition to a 1997 ballot measure to sell the Mt. Davidson cross to Armenian American groups as an alternative to tearing down the landmark.

Odds of 1-in-127 are pretty inviting, no doubt, to those who would flout or skirt the laws on political ethics. If the same odds - less than 1 percent chance of punishment - applied to murder and robbery, we'd be awash in violent crime.

And who's to say we aren't swimming in misdeeds of the political sort, such as conflict of interest and other violations of local campaign rules? With somnolent watchdogs like The City's Ethics Commission we'd hardly know it.

Confronted with the feckless performance described Monday by Examiner reporter Chuck Finnie, some people would say the answer is to put this dog to sleep permanently. Gee, who'd benefit by that?

This editorial page has complained previously about the Ethics Commission's virtual "invisibility" since its creation by the voters in 1993.

Of the 126 complaints that haven't led anywhere, all but 21 died. Those few are still under investigation by the Ethics Commission, the City Attorney or the District Attorney. Hey, everybody, how about some results?

One promising sign is that last week the Ethics Commission wrote the Service Employees International Union and other city unions, threatening fines if they continue to resist filing lobbyist disclosure statements, as required by law.

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We'll see how far that salvo gets with the powers that be behind the throne of King Willie I.

No doubt personnel problems, lack of funds and legal ambiguities hurt the Ethics Commission startup. But if we didn't know better, we'd say the biggest reason for its shadow existence is that some pols want it to fail. And why not? It only exists to keep them honest.&lt;

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